Radon Exhalation Rate of Some Building Materials Used in Egypt

Abstract

Indoor radon has been recognized as one of the health hazards for mankind. Common building materials used for construction of houses, which are considered as one of the major sources of this gas in indoor environment, have been studied for exhalation rate of radon. Non-nuclear industries, such as coal fired power plants or fertilizer production facilities, generate large amounts of waste gypsum as by-products. Compared to other building materials waste gypsum from fertilizer production facilities (phosphogypsum) shows increased rates of radon exhalation. In the present, investigation solid state alpha track detectors, CR-39 plastic detectors, were used to measure the indoor radon concentration and the radon exhalation rates from some building materials used in Egypt. The indoor radon concentration and the radon exhalation rate ranges were found to be 24-55 Bq m(-3 )and 11-223 mBq m(-2) h(-1), respectively. The effective dose equivalent range for the indoor was found 0.6-1.4 mSv y(-1). The equilibrium factor between radon and its daughters increased with the increase of relative humidity.

Microencapsulation of phosphogypsum into a sulfur polymer matrix: Physico-chemical and radiological characterization

“…These values are of the same order of magnitude of typical building materials, or slightly higher [49][50][51], which are in a typical range of 1-10 Bq m −2 h −1 . The mean value for the exhalation rate of the plate made of with SPC-30-50 (assuming you exhale only one side) is 11.7 ± 1.4 Bq m −2 h −1 , and being the highest values found near the edges of the plate.…”

A study of radon emitted from building materials using solid state nuclear track detectors

“…A passive method using CR-39 plastic detector, as a solid state alpha-track detector was developed for measurements of radon exhalation rate of samples of building materials. The CR-39, having a thickness of about 500 mm, is a very useful material for the registration of alpha particles (Maged & Ashraf, 2005). The tracks detected by these plastic detectors are not directly visible and have to be enlarged by adequate chemical processing.…”

Valorisation of ilmenite mud waste in the manufacture of commercial ceramic

“…Table 4 shows that index Iis significantly lower than six for all analysed materials. This renders undissolved mud a suitable material for use in the ceramic industry in comparison with other additives [40,41]. Ra in a sample thatreaches the pores of the material.…”